"And it reinforces the importance of not only paying for health reform, but ensuring that it significantly bends the cost curve on health care beyond the next ten years," Conrad said.

Other knowledgeable and responsible voices also have warned of the impending deficit disaster.

"For years, we've been warning that the budget was out of balance over the long-term and we should act while there was still time," said Maya McGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Crushing government deficits loom, unless the Obama administration reins in its propensity to spend.That was the cautionary statement from the Congressional Budget Office in its latest long-term budget forecast, reported recently in The Wall Street Journal Real Time...